Lorna Doone: The Wild and Wanton Edition, Volume 4

Release date: 27 January 2014On the border of the English counties of Devon and Somerset, John Ridd’s father is a yeoman farmer murdered in cold blood by one of the notorious Doone family. John is besotted with Lorna, the granddaughter of the head of the Doone clan, who is to be forced to marry the evil Carver Doone. John helps Lorna escape but circumstances lead to the discovery that she is not a Doone after all, and the newfound heiress moves. But the Monmouth Rebellion sees John wrongly accused of treason and he has to clear his name in London, where he finds Lorna once more and their love is rekindled. He is granted a royal pardon, and later Lorna is allowed to join him at his Exmoor farm. Just as they are married in Oare church, Carver Doone shoots Lorna at the altar and John, believing her dead, pursues and kills him. But is his love really dead?

Although Lorna Doone is perceived as a romance, it is set in the 1600s when writings such as poems about sexual life at the court and personal diaries such as those of Pepys could be incredibly graphic even by today’s standards—and definitely more so than in the prudish Victorian times of the author. Had Blackmore written it in the seventeenth century, or nowadays, he would probably have done as this updated version and built on the existing innuendo.

by M.J. Porteus and R.D. Blackmore

Wild and WantonSensuality Level: Spicy

Author Bio:
M. J. Porteus is the pen name of an author who writes in several other genres. She lives in “Lorna Doone country” in England with her husband, blended family and pets. She loves the peace and quiet the rural seclusion affords her for her writing—until her beloved grandchildren arrive! Learn more at www.mjporteus.com.

Richard Doddridge Blackmore (1825-1900) is an English author who loved the countryside of Somerset and Devon and set his most famous novel there, using factual places and events in the seventeenth century on which to base his romantic fiction. He is noted for his love of nature and his vivid descriptions.

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